This Is a Photograph of Me
This Is a Photograph of Me - meaning Summary
Presence Revealed Through Absence
The poem describes a blurred photograph that, on closer inspection, reveals a lakeside scene and, hidden beneath the water, the speaker’s submerged body. It explores how perception and time shape what we see: surface ambiguity conceals a traumatic fact—death—until prolonged looking makes the truth emerge. The speaker’s calm, observational voice compresses identity, absence and presence, suggesting that meaning depends on attention and interpretation.
Read Complete AnalysesIt was taken some time ago. At first it seems to be a smeared print: blurred lines and grey flecks blended with the paper; then, as you scan it, you see in the left-hand corner a thing that is like a branch: part of a tree (balsam or spruce) emerging and, to the right, halfway up what ought to be a gentle slope, a small frame house. In the background there is a lake, and beyond that, some low hills. (The photograph was taken the day after I drowned. I am in the lake, in the center of the picture, just under the surface. It is difficult to say where precisely, or to say how large or small I am: the effect of water on light is a distortion but if you look long enough, eventually you will be able to see me.)
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